League leaders are traveling to Freiburg to play second from bottom Freiburg, trying to keep their wining streak and maintain their position in the standings.

After defeat in their last away game, in Bielefeld, Bayern surely will not take Freiburg lightly, especially knowing that hosts are desperate for points in their attempt to maintain Bundesliga status. In the meantime, Bavarians played 2 great games. First they have crashed Dortmund 5-0 last Saturday, although it has to be said that it was one of the poorest displays in Dortmund's history; after that they had strong performance in Champions League against Arsenal they seem to be very close to qualifying to the next CL round. In those 2 games strikers Makaay and Pizzaro showed their full potential, scoring 3 goals each in those games, but also their defense was outstanding. There is a strong chance that Bayern will get back Michael Ballack for the game in Freiburg, although he isnt 100% certain at this moment. Anyway, Bayern have won 4 out of 5 games they played without Ballack, so obviously they have very deep squad - which cannot be weakened with anyone's absence. All other players are fit and ready to play, so Magath will field his strongest line-up.

Freiburg is without a win in last 3 games. Last week they were well beaten in Bochum, and 3-1 score is even flattering to them as they were totally harmless for most of the game. They are in need for points, but something is simply not working in this Finke's concept. Now, they have to play the league's strongest team and to make things worse for them, they have serious selection problems. Goalkeeper Golz, team captain and thei leader is suspended after being red-carded in Bochum. In addition, new striker Koejoe is injured, key midfielder Iashvili is ill, while it was reported that other 5 players have just recovered from flu, which means that they will hardly be fully fit in time.

Freiburg's players are under huge pressure to perform, and I doubt they can cope with it. In addition, they will keep in mind last season's humiliating 0-6 home loss against this same Bayern and recent Bayern's dominance over them. In last 6 home games Freiburg won just 2 points and scored just 2 goals!

Felix Magath will know how to motivate his players for this game. Champions League is on their schedule still and they simply cannot afford anymore slip-ups in these kind of games, as Schalke is still there and focused only on domestic competition. Therefore, anything but comprehensive away win would be a huge surprise for me.

25/02/2005 15:10, read 990 times

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